The Chinese WeChat app shuddered Saturday when a California ruling ended the Trump administration’s plan to ban the app at U. S. app outlets starting Sunday.
The president’s executive order banning WeChat would take effect on September 20 and prohibit corporations like Apple and Google from updating or maintaining the app for US users. But it’s not the first time It would also have prevented WeChat from facilitating remittances and payment processing at the national level.
However, a WeChat user organization asked the Department of Justice to avoid banning the App Store, which raises freedom of expression, flexible exercise, and other constitutional rights.
WeChat users basically use the platform in Chinese with family and friends in the United States and China. The app has 19 million regular users in the United States, according to the WeChat Users Alliance.
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Judge Laurel Beeler, a United States Justice of the Peace in San Francisco, heeded a ruling on the factor on Saturday, granting an initial injunction that allows more time for the Tencent-owned application.
Demand is the latest move in an ongoing application between the United States and China.
Trump insisted that Chinese-origin programs pose a risk to national security and suggested TikTok and WeChat sell their U. S. operations to a U. S. company or face a blockade.
On Saturday, Trump said he had “conceptually” approved an agreement between TikTok, owned by ByteDance, Oracle’s PC Force plant and Walmart. Trump’s approval prevented TikTok from being banned from app stores.
Follow Dalvin Brown on Twitter: @Dalvin_Brown.